Each week during the season, we'll survey the Fantasy Hockey landscape and provide you with a list of players whose Fantasy value has increased or decreased over the course of the past week.
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| | Tomas Vanek, LW, Buffalo The Austrian-born player has promised the Sabres would make the playoffs and the production he is putting forth in February is showing that he wants to deliver on that promise. Vanek scored a natural hat trick on Feb. 20 against Tampa Bay to vault Buffalo into a three-way tie for seventh place in the Eastern Conference with the New York Rangers and the Boston Bruins. More impressive is that it was his second hat trick in the last five games and he actually has eight goals during that stretch. Vanek has 11 goals in 10 games this month and there are five more games to play; he only had three goals in January. |
| | Martin Lapointe, RW, Chicago He's been seeing limited ice time as it was, but now Lapointe was even held out of a game as a healthy scratch on Wednesday against the Wild for the first time since joining the Blackhawks in 2005. He used to be able to put up much better numbers than the three goals and four assists he has in 52 games this season, however, those days are behind him. Averaging under nine minutes of ice time per game, Lapointe has no goals or points in 14 consecutive games. |
| | Nathan Horton, RW, Florida Compared to January when he only scored two goals, the 23-year-old is having a tremendous February for the Panthers. Horton has eight goals and 11 points in 10 games this month, with five more games to play. With 20 goals and 29 assists to this point of the season, he is on pace to top the career-best 62 points from last campaign. Horton is as productive as just about any forward in Fantasy leagues at this particular time. |
| | Tyler Arnason, C, Colorado He's the type of player who goes from hot to cold and back again. At the moment, unfortunately for his Fantasy owners, he is on the cold side right now with nothing to show for the last five games -- which happens to be all Avalanche losses. It's interesting to note that this slide came after he posted eight points in the four previous games. |
| | Zach Parise, LW, New Jersey Moving back to the first line with Patrick Elias and Jamie Langenbrunner is paying big dividends for Parise. He has one goal in each of the last four games, which came after a slump of no points in the four prior contests. His numbers for the season are quite good and fairly balanced at 24 goals and 29 assists. It's his inconsistency that has prevented him from having even better statistics for Fantasy purposes. |
| | Jose Theodore, G, Colorado While he is generally a pretty reliable goaltender, Theodore has hit a bump recently with four losses in a row and allowing 11 goals in those games. The fact of the matter is he has received almost no offensive support at all from his teammates -- the Avalanche have scored only three goals in those defeats. Until he gets back on track, consider other Fantasy goalie options carefully. |
| | Kevin Bieksa, D, Vancouver After he was sidelined for nearly four months when his calf and other muscles in the Achilles tendon area were sliced by a skate, Bieksa is finally back with the Canucks after a one-game conditioning assignment with Manitoba. The 26-year-old was out 46 games because of the injury that required surgery. He was one of the top Vancouver defensemen last season with 12 goals and 42 points. Look for Bieksa, who had just one goal and three assists before the injury, to get back in the mix and start producing some points. |
| | Alex Tanguay, LW, Calgary It took him more than a month to finally score a goal, notching a pair on Feb. 20. But don't expect goals to start piling up in bunches all of a sudden. Tanguay, who has 13 goals this season, remains more of an assist-type player. It looks like being bumped from the top line in favor of Kristian Huselius has perhaps affected his confidence and also has diminished his Fantasy value a little bit. Tanguay is having one of his worst seasons in his NHL career. |
| | Andrew Ladd, LW, Carolina Never a big-time production guy playing on the third or fourth line in his short three-year NHL career, this will be a career year from a points perspective. He already has eight goals and nine assists, which is four points short of his career best, posted last season. Ladd has at least one point in seven of the nine games in February (three goals and six assists) and is currently playing some of his finest hockey. |
| | Joffrey Lupul, RW, Philadelphia The problem with Lupul is not that he can't produce for either the Flyers or for Fantasy leagues, it's that he doesn't seem to be able to stay healthy long enough to live up to his value. Lupul was back on the ice on Feb. 9 after missing a month with an injury to his spine. He now will be sidelined again for 2-3 weeks with a high right ankle sprain. Lupul definitely has high offensive potential, just obviously not at this time. |
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